updated 7/14/23
Shirley Satter received a letter of apology from the Nampa Post master on Wednesday, explaining why the refund process went the way it did. She was also given a full refund of the money she spent sending the first set of packages.
********************************************
Shirley and Ron Satter were together for almost 40 years and were married for 29 of them.
“Love of my life,” Shirley said to Idaho News 6. “What more can I say? He was a great guy.”
The two met in Oregon and moved from Portland to Nampa around 2019. Together, they loved to ski, travel, and ride on the back of Ron’s Harley-Davidson Motorcycle together.
"He was an avid Harley rider, that was his thing,” Shirley said. “But unfortunately, he got sick about seven years ago. Had to give it up, and that was his life and I think it all kind of imploded from there.”
Ron passed away in March of 2023. Shirley decided she wanted to do something special with Ron’s cremated remains. She found three different artisans throughout the country to create glasswork and jewelry out of the ashes. One glass ball that had a hummingbird and a flower inside the glass would be for Shirley, and she also wanted to make two bracelets for their granddaughters.
When she was sending off the three different packages, she put them in USPS Priority Mail Express packaging. The packages also had stickers that said they were carrying cremated remains. In total, She spent $115.50 on postage fees. Shirley dropped the packages off at Caldwell Post Office blue drop box.
Around two weeks later, she says she went online to check the status of each package. When she looked, only one had been scanned in at the Caldwell location, and the other two were nowhere to be found. She says the singular package that was scanned also had no record of leaving Caldwell.
This prompted multiple phone calls and emails from Satter to the post office.
“Eventually what I found out was they sent the two un-scanned envelopes to the postal inspector for what reason I don’t know,” said Satter.
All the packages eventually got to their destinations but not until May, which was weeks later than the priority shipping Satter paid for. Before the original packages arrived, Satter sent a second set of ashes to the artisans, In order to receive her artwork in time for when she visited family, costing her another $115.50.
Satter says her frustrations are growing.
“I wanted him to enjoy what was left and this happened," Satter said. "And it’s just adding more fuel to the fire it’s like how much stress can one person go through. This is such a minor thing. I shouldn’t have to do this.”
Satter has been in contact with the USPS since May trying to get a refund for the postage fees of her original shipment. She says the Nampa Post Office gave her reimbursement for one of the packages, which was $38.50. She is still looking for the other $77, and accountability from the Caldwell Post Office.
Idaho News 6 reached out to the Post Office regarding Satter's situation.
They said that Satter should've been given to the clerk at the front desk and not dropped in the Blue Mail Box. She says that is why they were flagged.
"This is not the usual way cremated remains packages are sent, and because there were multiple items, it raised suspicion," said Kim Frum, a USPS representative, in an E-Mail to Idaho News 6. "As a result, the packages were handled per Postal Service safety protocols. But were put back into the mail stream once the contents were verified."
Satter said she was never told that was the correct process.
Frum told Idaho News 6 that customers may be notified "if the package is scanned as referred to law enforcement or if Inspection Service personnel contacts the customer about the package in question."
Since those actions did not happen in Satter's case, she was not notified.
After Idaho News 6 reached out, USPS said a customer representative would be in contact with Satter. However, Mrs. Satter's refund appeals have already been denied multiple times since the incident first took place.
Note: Some words were changed after original publication for clarity.
